[Windows Central] $30 a month for Ultimate — I don’t think Game Pass is worth it anymore
- Thread starter LectureMaster
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reinking
Gold Member
Conversion is not akin to it because it relies on circumventing the ability to select a discounted annual subscription. At the end of the day, who cares? People will determine where they find value.
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MisterXDTV
Member
Humdinger
Gold Member
That was sort of what I was thinking, although don't think they are trying to wind or shut down GP generally. I think they are targeting the Day 1 offers. We know that Phil pushed for Day 1 against resistance. I think that they (not Phil, necessarily, but those in charge) understand in retrospect that this was a bad idea, and it backfired. They can't kill Day 1 entirely - that would be seen as complete betrayal - but they can drastically reduce the incentive to remain at that tier. Which is what they've done.
I don't think they're surprised by the backlash or the cancellations. I actually think they are okay with it - that this is part of the "plan," so to speak.
If you're planning on subscribing for a year, I can't see any reason not to do the conversion.
MisterXDTV
Member
Normal people don't even know what "a conversion" is
They just see the official price and that's it
Kilau
Member
My hot take, yes we are live.
I honestly don't think Microsoft cares or has ever cared about gaming (outside of a few guys from the original box). It's too small for their ambition, a means to a greater end. Microsoft has always been a company who disrupts and causes chaos. Nothing more than drug dealers. Sell your product cheap or for free, present something too good to be true and get people hooked.
Microsoft will happily burn it all down and damage gaming as a whole. They couldn't beat Sony or Nintendo, so they will just scorch earth the entire industry. They don't care about the IP's they've collected or it's studios. I could even see them walking away and letting all those IPS rot.
Whatever they wanted, whatever their end game is/was is no longer viable in the gaming industry.
They certainly don't care about their loyal zealots and customers.
Microsoft,
The whole thing started because Bill Gates was butthurt that PlayStation was "ruling the living room". In the last 25 years the entire market has changed and not even Sony is really keeping up. So yeah, MS will burn their console and gaming business to the ground while squeezing whatever money they can out of the stuff they own. The entire market needs a reset, it's fucking wall to wall trash.
Generally with most things there is a "sticker price" which people who don't know better pay, and there is the price that informed people pay. If you're on NeoGAF you should know better and should not be paying 12 x $30. If you're not a gamer and are considering Ultimate for your kid, you will probably just be aware of the $30 price.
I wonder how long it will take for "Windows Central" to start "promoting" Game Pass again?
They always complain at first, but then backtrack and repeat the PR that MS sent them.
I remember Fat Jezz throwing a tantrum on Twitter because Xbox games came out on the PS5, only to later defecate that "MS is dominating the PlayStation" "Xbox victory" even though Phil Spencer said under oath that "Sony uses the profits from Xbox games on the PlayStation to destroy the Xbox."
They always complain at first, but then backtrack and repeat the PR that MS sent them.
I remember Fat Jezz throwing a tantrum on Twitter because Xbox games came out on the PS5, only to later defecate that "MS is dominating the PlayStation" "Xbox victory" even though Phil Spencer said under oath that "Sony uses the profits from Xbox games on the PlayStation to destroy the Xbox."
kriolo
Member
Family and friends still get around the living room?
GHG
Member
alphachino
Member
I actually had GP for 3 years, but must have only spent less than 5 hours playing it. In the end, I realized that I wouldnt use it even if it were free. my saves are way too valuable to be locked to a company like MS
Topher
Identifies as young
So buy, convert, cancel reoccuring, lapse, buy, convert, cancel reoccuring, lapse, buy.....
That is not "akin to yearly pricing". Yearly means you pay annually and that's it. Done.
You are trying way too hard here my man
alphachino
Member
and that is a problem? does it somehow make it untrue?
DirtInUrEye
Member
For a dollar? Unless a person is fucking thick in the head, yes it makes it untrue.
Kilau
Member
Smart phones and tablets changed the living room into an infrequent gathering space for screen addicted zombies.
DirtInUrEye
Member
Do they have a plan to replace it with something else, or are they just completely abandoning the lauded Netflix model they managed to achieve with video games and going back to standard digital purchases?
It is possible they are interpreting the positive interaction with their store front via the Xbox app as meaning they have now overcome the problems they've had with store fonts in the past (Windows Store) and that players will just continue to use it to make purchases, instead of going back to Steam. Yeah right.
Anyway, I'm not sure they're doing away with Game Pass based on this latest price hike.
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Pallas
Member
Didn't they try this before with Gold or even gamepass years ago? There was a massive backlash that made them back pedal in hilarious fashion trying to explain why they thought it was the right idea
I honestly don't understand their reasoning for this other than greed and hope enough subscribers are too ignorant about their subscriptions increasing, that they don't even realize it's increased. Luckily I have mine until July next year.
How quick do you think it'll take for then to respond to all the cancellations? Because I imagine the amount must be massive if it crashed their site.
I honestly don't understand their reasoning for this other than greed and hope enough subscribers are too ignorant about their subscriptions increasing, that they don't even realize it's increased. Luckily I have mine until July next year.
How quick do you think it'll take for then to respond to all the cancellations? Because I imagine the amount must be massive if it crashed their site.
There hasn't been for a while. He's talking about the conversion trick which in all honesty might not even work now or be worth it.
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reinking
Gold Member
I don't think they care enough to back pedal this time.
Nydius
Member
Exactly the stance I'm taking. Looking at the list of games we know are coming to the service over the next 18-ish months, the only ones I'd really want to play at launch are Forza Horizon 6 and Gears E-Day. And I'm not even sure about Forza until I get to see more about it because if it's the same overly populated map of busy work like the last two, I might wait on that as well.
Stuff like Outer Worlds 2, Fable (assuming it actually sees the light of day), Ninja Gaiden 4, or the Halo CE Remake? I can easily wait for those to go on sale.
Tobimacoss
Member
Do I need to notify you when I post? Or ask for permission?
https://www.reddit.com/r/xcloud/about/ Scroll down, Do you see the mods list?
It is what it is. Do, or Do Not. Sure beats the whining online. But I was just correcting that poster's facts.
Premium tier is fine for most users. Notice how MS has basically raised the ARPU (Average Rate Per User) to $15 month, whether it's via Premium for $15 month, or Ultimate after conversion for $15 month.
GHG
Member
Yes and yes.
For the sake of transparency, what perks/payments are xbox/Microsoft giving you to do that?
And does that also extend to you spreading their gospel on other communities such as this one?
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GHG
Member
No you weren't.reinking asked about yearly pricing, not all that nonsense. Gaslighting for a corporation "beats" complaining about price hikes? lol....maybe in your world.
Take a look at his reddit profile that he linked above and go to "comments"...
In other words, don't waste your time. Jez Corden on steroids.
NickFire
Member
Imagine working for free socks all those years and getting thrown away a few weeks before the second COD hits GP? Must be hard for some of these guys. I feel almost bad or something.
Honestly, who could have ever seen this coming? They seemed like such a nice trillion dollar company with a history when they were buying everything up.
Honestly, who could have ever seen this coming? They seemed like such a nice trillion dollar company with a history when they were buying everything up.
Crayon
Member
Oh you know that makes more sense. Just get that tier a little more out of reach and see how things shake out. Maybe it could settle into something more sustainable, or maybe it turns out to be more of a sunsetting. Which makes sense as a risk given that things aren't going well with the current model.
Nydius
Member
On the discussion of conversion rates, some quick napkin math.
12 months of Essential, retail, is $75. Per Microsoft's website, one month Essential equals 12 days Ultimate, so a 40% conversion rate. Stacking 3 years of Essential then buying one month of Ultimate to convert all the unused time comes to $255 and nets you 15 months of Ultimate.
That brings the total monthly cost of Ultimate back to the old $17 it used to be, but, let's be honest, how many people are going to jump through all of those hoops, and spend $255 up front, for 15 months of Game Pass Ultimate? Only the most hardcore of folks.
Plus, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find 12 months of Game Pass Core cards and I wouldn't put it past Microsoft to discontinue cards above 3 months outright in the future. Honestly, with the change they made to reward points, I wouldn't be surprised if they discontinue Game Pass retail cards all together in the near future and force everyone into buying directly from them via Gift Cards.
12 months of Essential, retail, is $75. Per Microsoft's website, one month Essential equals 12 days Ultimate, so a 40% conversion rate. Stacking 3 years of Essential then buying one month of Ultimate to convert all the unused time comes to $255 and nets you 15 months of Ultimate.
That brings the total monthly cost of Ultimate back to the old $17 it used to be, but, let's be honest, how many people are going to jump through all of those hoops, and spend $255 up front, for 15 months of Game Pass Ultimate? Only the most hardcore of folks.
Plus, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find 12 months of Game Pass Core cards and I wouldn't put it past Microsoft to discontinue cards above 3 months outright in the future. Honestly, with the change they made to reward points, I wouldn't be surprised if they discontinue Game Pass retail cards all together in the near future and force everyone into buying directly from them via Gift Cards.
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Setsuna Mudou
Member
And if you find 3 friends, you'll save 75%.... that's fucking insane...
Can you imagine how it would be if you found like....99 friends to split with? You'd basically get it for free....
Humdinger
Gold Member
Yeah, I'm just speculating of course, but drastically slashing back Day 1 offers makes more sense to me than trying to sunset GP entirely. I'm sure that GP can be a good business for them, if they restructure it so that only a small percentage are subbing to the Day 1 tier.
Crayon
Member
This is making me question if sony's version is working out for them. I never really hear about it.
Giallo Corsa
Member
- Before and after the ABK acquisition, = "hahaha, more games for us, you keep spending those 60-70$ on your platforms hahaha"
- When news of going 3rd party started coming out : "LOL, it's only a couple of games"
- After more than a "couple" of games started releasing on the competing platform : "hahaha, you said Xbox has no games and now you're buying OUR games Ponies, ahahaha"
- When mentioning that MS, their beloved multi trillion company basically threw all of their userbase under the bus by devaluing the whole Xbox platform by doing so : laughing emojis
- When news/rumours of future Xbox platforms supporting Steam hit : "hahaha, we're gonna be playing YOUR games on OUR platform"
Frankly, after what's been happening in the past couple of days, I'm really curious to see what the new spin will be, surely they'll finally shut up ?
PS: The new news about retailers trying to unload their XSX/XSS stock after the GP price increase isn't a coincidence btw, unfortunately, all signs show that this brand is going the way of the dodo for better or worse.
- When news of going 3rd party started coming out : "LOL, it's only a couple of games"
- After more than a "couple" of games started releasing on the competing platform : "hahaha, you said Xbox has no games and now you're buying OUR games Ponies, ahahaha"
- When mentioning that MS, their beloved multi trillion company basically threw all of their userbase under the bus by devaluing the whole Xbox platform by doing so : laughing emojis
- When news/rumours of future Xbox platforms supporting Steam hit : "hahaha, we're gonna be playing YOUR games on OUR platform"
Frankly, after what's been happening in the past couple of days, I'm really curious to see what the new spin will be, surely they'll finally shut up ?
PS: The new news about retailers trying to unload their XSX/XSS stock after the GP price increase isn't a coincidence btw, unfortunately, all signs show that this brand is going the way of the dodo for better or worse.
Humdinger
Gold Member
Anecdotally, here is some of what I've seen online:
- If you complain about the increase, you are a "crybaby."
- This will be good for Microsoft/Xbox. It means more revenue and less cannibalization of game sales.
- Journalists aren't doing a good job of explaining the changes.
- People scrambling for discount codes and coupon-clipping, saying no problem
- MS analyzed the situation carefully beforehand, did a lot of research, and determined that this was the best course forward.
- Hey, we get improved resolution for cloud gaming.
To be clear, most Xbox guys are unhappy about it, but I have seen these sorts of responses from a few.
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DragonNCM
Member
That train is long gone & they need to fire these clowns.
Tobimacoss
Member
Conversion still works, it's a 2.5:1 ratio now.
Do you even know how reddit works? Community based subreddits. And I have been reading/lurking Neogaf and Resetera for years. I can't figure out how to create a Resetera account, and I only started posting on NeoGaf due to Magnus. Where else would I be able to discuss stuff with the likes of HeisenbergFX, Kepler? I discuss topics that interest ME personally, on sites where the discussion is most interesting.
The OG post from MisterTV? Can't remember the user, but it was regarding value of the subscriptions comparing monthly pricing for Gamepass but yearly for PS+.No you weren't.
In order to gauge the value of a subscription, you don't just look at price points but also the feature set and Game Catalog. Everything I stated was fact. Please correct me if I was wrong.
Essential is $80 yearly now, same price as PS+ Essential yearly at $80. Although PS+ Essential tier usually gives out much better games than what's on the Gamepass Essential catalog.
Too late, they have supposedly already signed over 150 deals for this and next year. Full stream ahead.
kikii
Member
Humdinger
Gold Member
Yeah, I might be giving MS too much credit for self-awareness and strategic thinking. Driving people out of the Day 1 giveaway tier is probably not by design. It's probably the result of greed and ineptitude.
It doesnt sound like game pass is winding down
Xbox has made "largest investment in Game Pass to date" this year, countering recent criticism of subscription service's value
This year has marked Xbox's "largest investment in Game Pass to date", according to ID@Xbox boss Chris Charla.www.eurogamer.net
Full steam ahead
Yup, see above.
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$30 is only really ok for a pretty small cohort. To get your moneys worth you'd need to be playing about 8 new major releases a year on the service, or far more for older games. They do release a lot on games pass, but how many are the games you're excited to play, are your genre preference, and would have previously purchased? Probably not that many. Additionally the percentage of gamers who have time for that many big games per year among older demographics (who have appropriate disposable capital) is not large. I do, as we don't have kids and my wife is more than happy to let me game whilst she crochets etc. I'm lucky tho, many would not be happy with their partners gaming as much as me….and I'm not sure even I hit that many BIG games per year, total games sure, more than that, but that'll be indies pulling up the numbers…then at the end of the day you don't own any of them. You can BUY plenty of games for $30 per month.Ah, understood.
I play on PC and have the living room PC setup with Playnite with the Gamepass library right in the menu. So I use it a lot. For me Gamepass is already merged into everything, I just go through a giant games list and click install and play, everything from Steam and Gamepass and Epic and so on starts from the same menu. Paying extra at that point seems dumb tbh.
I also prepaid the subscription so it's not about keeping the sub because I might use it, it's already an investment of sorts.
But my cheap sub ends soon so then it becomes a different beast all together. Minimum price increase is2x3x… It's either a regular sub at $30/month, 6x price increase from the prepaid deal. Or a new longer investment if I can find prepayment options at $15/month through stacked 3 month codes,2x3x price increase.
edit, minimum 3x price increase……
And $30/month is just to much imo. Would literally be my most expensive subscription plan besides having internet and a mobile phone. Everything else in my life with monthly set payments is less expensive.
The ONLY scenario this makes sense to me for users is as random single month purchases for time rich people, who will sub for a month and binge play a couple of big releases, then cancel.
Critically imo it blows well past the typical birthday or Christmas present value. I've bought family members ps+ subs for Christmas etc before. It's like £100ish, it means they can game all year. I expect this will not really be viable for many people anymore.
GHG
Member
It was a couple of straightforward questions, no need to be all cloak and dagger (unless you have to be of course).
Unknown Soldier
Member
Clear
CliffyB's Cock Holster
Let's be real here. This is the "mask-off" moment for what MS intentions have been for GP from the start.
If a person is spending $360 a year on a subscription, realistically how many games are they expecting them to buy from outside of the service ?
I'd say, very few, or any at all.
Almost as if they want a complete replacement for all alternative distribution methods... a monopoly where players own nothing.
If a person is spending $360 a year on a subscription, realistically how many games are they expecting them to buy from outside of the service ?
I'd say, very few, or any at all.
Almost as if they want a complete replacement for all alternative distribution methods... a monopoly where players own nothing.
Topher
Identifies as young
Orbital2060
Member
It doesnt sound like game pass is winding down
Xbox has made "largest investment in Game Pass to date" this year, countering recent criticism of subscription service's value
This year has marked Xbox's "largest investment in Game Pass to date", according to ID@Xbox boss Chris Charla.
www.eurogamer.net
Full steam ahead